News Release

February 28, 2008

Zennoh Breaks Ground for a Rice-based Ethanol Plant

Satake to supply rice husk biomass boiler and other equipment.

On February 25th, 2008, Zennoh (The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations) broke ground on a rice-based ethanol plant at the Niigata factory of Co-op Chemical Co., Ltd. Satake will supply rice husking and milling facilities and a biomass boiler that uses rice husk as fuel.

This rice-based ethanol plant is being constructed by Zennoh after MAFF (The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries of Japan) certified it to serve as “Local-Use Biofuel Test Project”. The project includes rice husking and milling processes in addition to an ethanol production process. A high-yielding variety of rice named Hokuriku 193 will be cultivated in a 300ha paddy field to supply raw materials and fuel for the plant.

Satake will supply paddy husking, destoning and rice milling facilities to process the rice before it is converted into ethanol. Satake will also supply a biomass boiler that will generate steam necessary for saccharification and distillation. The biomass boiler is powered by paddy husks produced in the husking process. The boiler generates flammable gas in a gasification furnace and then supplies the gas to a boiler.

The plant is expected to be completed by the end of this year, and will begin operation in January 2011. The bioethanol production capacity is 1,000 kiloliters per year. The bioethanol produced by the plan will be mixed with 33,000 kiloliters of gasoline and distributed as E3 gasoline at gas stations in Niigata Prefecture operated by JA Agricultural Cooperatives.

Facilities Supplied by Satake

1. Paddy Husker
(1) Model:HPS60FP (2) Capacity:2.4t/h(brown rice) (3) Required Power:5.9kW (4) Q'ty:1

2. Destoner
(1) Model:GA30RB (2) Capacity:1.8t/h(brown rice) (3) Required Power:0.2kW (4) Q'ty:2

3. Rice Whitening Machine
(1) Model:HPR25B (2) Capacity:1.5t/h (brown rice) (3) Required Power:18.5kW (4) Q'ty:1

4. Weighers
(1) Model:RDBS24A (2) Capacity:6t/h(brown rice) (3) Required Power:0.25kW (4) Q'ty:1

5. Biomass Gasification Furnace
(1) Capacity:286kg/h(husk) (2) Q'ty:1

6. Biomass Boiler
(1) Mode:AD-15 (2) Capacity:800kg/h(Amount of Steam, Pressure) (3) Q'ty:1

* Please note descriptions in news releases are accurate as of the date of release and may differ from the most up-to-date information.